28 November, 2009

Keepalive: Call of Cthulhu, Mass Effect, Black Friday

written by Blain Newport on Friday, November 27, 2009

THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR CALL OF CTHULHU: DARK CORNERS OF THE EARTH. DEAL WITH IT PINK BOY.

While you were eating turkey, I was investigating a cult that carved arcane symbols into its members' flesh. While you bought Christmas presents, I unwittingly unleashed a monster that killed a little girl. That monster used to be her mother.

So far Dark Corners of the Earth is a decent horror game, if a bit plodding. If the sound design was a bit better and the fog the villagers keep talking about had actually existed in the game, I would think it was building tension and atmosphere, but as it is, it's just slow paced. But I'm finally to the part where the entire town will be trying to kill me, so things should be picking up. I've heard the game isn't as good once you're able to defend yourself, so we'll see how much time there is between now and then. The very beginning of the game shows the protagonist taking his own life in an insane asylum, so at least I can expect an appropriately Lovecraftian ending.

The Jayne Cobb playthrough of Mass Effect is going well. It's still mostly just a Renegade playthrough, but occasionally I get a dialog choice that makes me laugh because it's near enough to what Jayne would say that I can almost hear Adam Baldwin's voice. "I like trouble, 'cause trouble means a fight, and fightin' means loot."

I finally splurged on a few Black Friday games. At $2.50, I figured I owed it to myself to give Knights of the Old Republic one more try. At $2.00, I figured the people who made Madballs had done a good enough job that they deserved a little money. And at $15, I figured supporting new IP Dead Space was finally worth doing. I don't expect I'll end up a fan, honestly. But we'll see (sometime next week when it finished downloading).